Kanye Isn’t Going To Mention President Obama Anymore

Kanye West continued his impromptu 2013 radio tour on Monday, stopping by Philadelphia station Hot 107.9 for an interview with morning show hosts Shamara and Laiya. The 20-minute chat, available in three videos online, covered a wide array of topics, including West’s current Yeezus Tour, his early rap influences (“Hammer, LL Cool J, Run DMC”) and his profession:

People get mad at me saying that I am a creative genius, but it’s just obvious. It’s, like, factual. […] I’m not a musician, I don’t even know how to play the piano. I would write creative genius when I go through the airport — and you have to put that in customs [forms], where you put what your title is — except for two reasons: it takes too long to write and sometimes I spell the word genius wrong.

Toward the end of the Hot 107.9 interview, West was asked about his relationship with Barack Obama and whether he would ever “break bread” with the president:

Oh, you talking about how he use to come and visit me and my mama and tell me he’s about to run for president? I just think that we’re pop icons, and the president likes to use that type of thing just to be down. People was fine with me being everyone’s punching bag for about five years. “This is the person we love to hate, so if you want to distract people from everything that’s going on […] just say you hate Kanye and there’s going be 30 other people who say they hate Kanye.” That was kind of my position in culture and he kind of used that too. “Oh, he’s a jackass,” because that’s how the world felt.